Photo: Norman Lear | By Chris Morris, Variety | Writer-producer-developer Norman Lear, who revolutionized American comedy with such daring, immensely popular early-‘70s sitcoms as “All in the Family” and “Sanford and Son,” died on Tuesday. He was 101.
Lear’s publicist confirmed to Variety that he died at his home in Los Angeles of natural causes. A private service for immediate family will be held in the coming days.
“Thank you for the moving outpouring of love and support in honor of our wonderful husband, father, and grandfather,” Lear’s family said in a statement. “Norman lived a life of creativity, tenacity, and empathy. He deeply loved our country and spent a lifetime helping to preserve its founding ideals of justice and equality for all. Knowing and loving him has been the greatest of gifts. We ask for your understanding as we mourn privately in celebration of this remarkable human being.”
Lear had already established himself as a top comedy writer and captured a 1968 Oscar nomination for his screenplay for “Divorce American Style” when he concocted the idea for a new sitcom, based on a popular British show, about a conservative, outspokenly bigoted working-class man and his fractious Queens family. “All in the Family” became an immediate hit, seemingly with viewers of all political persuasions.
Lear’s shows were the first to address the serious political, cultural and social flashpoints of the day – racism, abortion, homosexuality, the Vietnam war — by working pointed new wrinkles into the standard domestic comedy formula. No subject was taboo: Two 1977 episodes of “All in the Family” revolved around the attempted rape of lead character Archie Bunker’s wife Edith.
Their fresh outrageousness turned them into huge ratings successes: For a time, “Family” and “Sanford,” based around a Los Angeles Black family, ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in the country. “All in the Family” itself accounted for no less than six spin-offs. “Family” was also honored with four Emmys in 1971-73 and a 1977 Peabody Award for Lear, “for giving us comedy with a social conscience.” (He received a second Peabody in 2016 for his career achievements.)
Some of Lear’s other creations played with TV conventions. “One Day at a Time” (1975-84) featured a single mother of two young girls as its protagonist, a new concept for a sitcom. Similarly, “Diff’rent Strokes” (1978-86) followed the growing pains of two Black kids adopted by a wealthy white businessman.
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Lear . . . became a major player in the music business with the 1999 purchase, with former Embassy exec Hal Gaba, of Concord Music Group, one of the largest independent label operations in the world, with holdings including the catalogs of such indie labels as Concord Jazz, Fantasy, Stax, Riverside, Milestone, Rounder and Vanguard.
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Lear was born in New Haven, Conn., on July 27, 1922. Both his parents were Jews of Russian origin; he claimed in interviews that his father and mother were the inspirations for the characters of Archie and Edith Bunker. He dropped out of Boston’s Emerson College to enlist in the U.S. Air Force in 1942, and served as a radio operator and gunner on B-17 bombers in the European theater, flying 52 missions.
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[Lear] averred, “I didn’t see it changing television at all. We had a Judeo-Christian ethic hanging around a couple thousand years that didn’t help erase racism at all. So the notion of the little half-hour comedy changing things is something I think is silly.”
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He is survived by his third wife Lyn Davis, six children and four grandchildren.
Read the more complete bio here:
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/norman-lear-tv-legend-dies-133220344.html
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OTHER NOTABLE MUSICIANS’ DEATHS
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There were several other musicians of note who passed these last couple of weeks but space kept us from honoring them. If you want to know more about any of the musicians we lost, please check them out at http://www.wikipedia.com
December 2023
6: Amos Ettinger, 86, Israeli poet, songwriter, and radio presenter; Pedro Hietanen, 74, Finnish musician and conductor; Michel Sardaby, 88, French jazz pianist; Jimmy Villotti, 78, Italian musician.
5: Denny Laine, 79, English Hall of Fame musician (Wings, The Moody Blues) and songwriter (“Mull of Kintyre”), interstitial lung disease; Norman Lear, 101, American Hall of Fame screenwriter and producer (All in the Family, Maude, The Jeffersons).
4: Sophie Anderson, 36, British pornographic actress, recording artist, and Internet personality; Vlado Pravdic, 73, Bosnian keyboardist (Bijelo Dugme).
3: Klaus Bernbacher, 92, German conductor; Thanga Darlong, 103, Indian folk musician; Myles Goodwyn, 75, Canadian musician (April Wine) and songwriter (“Tonite Is a Wonderful Time to Fall in Love”, “Just Between You and Me”).
2: Medea Amiranashvili, 93, Georgian opera singer.
1: Badar uz Zaman, 83, Pakistani classical singer.
November 2023
30: Shane MacGowan, 65, English-born Irish singer (The Pogues, Shane MacGowan and the Popes) and songwriter (“Fairytale of New York”), pneumonia and encephalitis.
29: Scott Kempner, 69, American guitarist (The Dictators, The Del-Lords, The Brandos), complications from dementia; Mildred Miller, 98, American mezzo-soprano.
28: Queenzy Cheng, 37, Malaysian actress and singer; John Colianni, 61, American jazz pianist; Dedema, 76, Chinese singer; Lanny Gordin, 72, Brazilian instrumentalist and composer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deaths_in_2023
Photo: Norman Lear | From Mr. Lear’s Facebook page
Norman Lear, TV Legend, Dies at 101 // Other Notable Musicians’ Deaths
